Sixth District Prosecutor's Office laid attempted extortion charges against the popular mayor of Ásotthalom László Toroczkai. The basis of the charges includes an “incident” took place on March 15, 2012 when the former president of the Sixty-Four Counties Youth Movement attempted to hand over a petition to representatives of the IMF in Budapest Bank Center.
Surprise, surprise, in midst of the municipal election campaign the prosecutor office reopened the case; the procedure hauntingly resembles the Béla Kovács affair who was accused of spying for Russia in the spring national election campaign.

According to Toroczkai, the charges against him are part of the anti-Jobbik campaign by the government and the fact that the case was reopened in the middle of the municipal election campaign is a clear indication that the accusations against him are politically motivated aiming to erode the popularity of the Jobbik party.

The mayor of Ásotthalom has nothing to fear as he has very high approval rate among voters. The likelihood of his re-election in the autumn municipal election is very high.

Speaking to atv.hu, Toroczkai remarked that the investigation against him in the Bank Center case has been close twice in the past - the last time in 2013, in both occasions charges were dropped against him.

He added that the purpose of the never ending investigation against him was to give an impression that indeed, he had committed a crime by "submitting a petition to bank officials, which even in a dictatorship can't be called violation of the law".

According to Toroczkai, "it would be a joke" if he sentenced to three years in prison for an attempt to hand over a petition to a bank official as he has no criminal record.

He resigns only if the court sentences him in prison time, but if he will be sentenced to pay fines he won't.

Toroczkai added that the current scandal doesn't affect his election campaign in any way, because he is the only mayoral candidate running for the job in the town and voters know him very well; it does not matter what the media lies about him voters can't be manipulated by the lies said Toroczkai.

At Wednesday's press conference Jobbik spokesman Ádám Mirkóczki remarked that it was unacceptable that the government uses the public prosecutor's office, the court and law enforcement agencies for political purposes. There was no election campaign in the past couple of years without staged scandals perpetrated by law enforcement agencies and judicial authorities that are under the complete control of the government said the Jobbik politician.

In the spring national election campaign police arrested and accused socialist MP Gábor Simon with fraud; in the EP campaign Jobbik MEP Béla Kovács was charged with spying for Russia, and now, the very same agencies issued an indictment against Ásotthalom mayor László Toroczkai re-opening his case that took place two years ago said Mirkóczki.

The Jobbik spokesman added that by staging scandals the government wants to intimidate the entire public sector. While serious crimes are committed across the country ever day, swat teams harassing women working in the public sector. Mirkóczki believes that the reason behind these attacks is the government's inability to control the public sector.